China convened the State Council Executive Meeting on November 20. The meeting adopted the opinion on making publicly disclosure information on administrative penalties concerning the production and sale of counterfeit and the inferior goods and IPR infringement. Accordingly, China will legally disclose the information on those administrative penalty cases. It will be conductive to maintain a fair order of market competition, protecting consumer rights, improving the credibility of the law enforcement and making it easier to accept supervision from the public. It is an effective "prescription" to promote product quality improvement and industrial upgrading, enhance consumer confidence, protect IPR and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

The meeting noted that fair competition is the basic requirement of market economy development. At present, China is in a critical phase of reform and economic transition whilst it’s essential to improve product quality and implement innovation-driven mechanism. Punishment to inferior is to award superior. It’s a must to make offenders pay a high price for producing counterfeit goods harming life and health of public and to praise law-abiding operators and clear up the road for them, assuring that scientific and technical personnel willing to innovate and build entrepreneurship.

The meeting also requested that disclosure of information on administrative penalty cases concerning production and sale of counterfeit goods and IPR infringement had to be an important part of government information disclosure. Except for those involving commercial secrets and personal privacy, the information on counterfeit administrative penalties cases applying general investigating process should be voluntarily disclosed. Administrative law enforcement agencies have to legally disclose the information within a specifically assigned period from the day when they make or change the punishment or penalty, including the main illegal fact, the type, the legal basis and the result of the penalty, trying to be open and transparent, and timely responsive to social concerns. To incorporate the information on administrative punishment cases into the social credit system can constraint offenders everywhere because of their bad records. Law enforcement agencies have to perform their duties strictly following the law. Governments at all levels should accelerate to establish management and appraisal system and strengthen supervision and inspection. The acts of not fulfill the obligation of information disclosure, failure to disclosure or updating on time as well as charging fees illegally have to be corrected seriously so that the law enforcement can be supervised by public.

(China IP News)